Learning the world by living in it
New programs in Norway and Northern Ireland expand the global footprint of Augsburg’s Center for Global Education and Experience.
Written by Jordan Osterman. Featured story published on Augsburg Now on March 26, 2026.
The ferry moves quietly through the fjord, the water dark and glassy beneath steep rock walls. Waterfalls cut silver lines down the cliffs, dropping hundreds of feet straight into the sea.
For students in the Center for Global Education and Experience (CGEE), this isn’t a postcard moment or a pause between lessons. It is the lesson.
Whether the view is in Norway, Guatemala, or South Africa, this is what learning looks like through CGEE: Students stand inside the geography, systems, histories, and questions that shape a place, rather than studying them from a distance.
For more than 45 years, CGEE has built semester-long, customized short-term, and summer programs supported by its long-standing study centers across Africa, Latin America, and Europe—including a new program in Norway and recently expanded offerings in Northern Ireland and Italy. Rooted in community-based learning, long-term relationships, and intentional reflection, CGEE’s model feels especially resonant, both globally and here in Minnesota.
“[CGEE] offers the opportunity to develop relationships with people across lines of difference, to truly engage,” says Ann Lutterman-Aguilar, who has worked with CGEE since the early 1990s and now leads its longest-standing program in Cuernavaca, Mexico, which started in 1979 and focuses on themes of religion and social change, migration and human rights, among others. “Not to just be a tourist somewhere, read about something in a book, but to hear people’s stories, get to know those people, and put human faces and voices to social issues.”
Bella Wizik is a rising senior at Augsburg University, from Duluth, Minnesota, majoring in Communications and Film. With over two years of experience in Augsburg’s Residence Life, Bella currently serves as a Community Development Assistant, where she thrives in fostering connections and enhancing student life. She’s also actively involved with Augsburg Campus Ministries, where her passion for building relationships and creating a supportive community flourishes.
Ruben is an International Business and Management major with a minor in Management Information Systems. He is from Spain with a Latin American background (his mother is from Brazil). Ruben is currently preparing for a conference in New York for the Model UN course, representing Finland. This experience will provide him with some knowledge of the Nordic countries, and he is excited to learn more about Norway during the Smaby Peace Scholar experience.
The Arctic is regarded as the most important foreign policy area for Norway. The United States and Norway are both Arctic countries and close allies in NATO. Important areas of cooperation in the Arctic are: security, climate, energy, environment and living conditions for the people living in the Arctic.
Professor Curt Rice will become the next Executive Director for Fulbright Norway. Curt brings experience in higher education and research from both the United States and Norway to this position. He moved to Norway in 1991 after his PhD work at the University of Texas at Austin. He worked at the University of Trondheim (now NTNU) for two years before moving to the University of Tromsø in 1993 where he remained until 2015. Here he served as the founding director of UiT’s first Center of Excellence among other appointments.
The Oslo Chamber Choir, made up of 24 professional singers and their director Håkon Nystedt (grandson of the Norwegian choral composer, Knut Nystedt) visited Augsburg University on October 4, 2023 in our Hoversten Chapel. They shared their commitment to Scandinavian folk music, and the music of the traditional choral repertoire. The concert featured a guest appearance by the Augsburg/Mirandola Collective.
Kurt Engh remounts his original stage adaptation of Erlend Loe’s 1995 cult novel, reimagining the 25-year-old Norwegian narrator as a universal every-person.
